Marauders Abound
by teemingwithwords
Summary: Enter the world of Hogwarts circa 1777. Hopefully the magic of the number seven will lead to a lucky year for our Marauders and their fellow students. I'm only a few chapters in, so be patient with me as the plot unfolds.
1. Chapter 1

AN: Just posting the intro to get things started out! More will come soon.

Disclaimer: JK Rowling is a genius and created everything of substance that follows.

Hogwarts is comparable to The Underworld in Greek Mythology. The majority of students end up in the Fields of Elysium, this is neither good or bad luck to the person on the receiving end of this eternal classification. The genealogically gifted and generally lucky are given the eternal glory of the Fields of Asphodel. Genealogical gifts can span from general good genes to your parentage, who your parents are can change your classification completely.

Then there's Tartarus. Tartarus, to put it simply, is a dark place where souls are sent to suffer and eternal punishment. Tartarus is where everyone is sent. The freaks, the geeks, the artists, the socially inept, the poor, the unhygienic, the genetically disinclined. Tartarus represents the living hell that some students experience in Hogwarts. In Greek Myths villains are sent to Tartarus, but at Hogwarts it's where the outliers go to live out their six to seven year punishment.

But Tartarus isn't so bad when there are others damned with you

Funny thing about the way student life at Hogwarts was just categorized. It is a rare moment when one can guess what your placement is without knowing you very well.

Take James Potter and Sirius Black for example. In silent observation of their lifestyles one could assume that the pair, best friends and descendants of powerful pureblood families, had been gifted an easy life at Hogwarts of eternal glory in the Fields of Asphodel. Truthfully, that was the case, but not because it was the hand they were given.

James Potter's generally nonchalant nature led many of his schoolmates to believe that his life was easy, unplagued by decisions, and something to be coveted. And during his years at Hogwarts it was, but some say he used up all of his luck winning hearts and Quidditch games. Luckily for James no one ever discovered that he was naught more than a lanky boy blessed with good genes and cursed with bad eyes sight.

His parents would describe the time before James grew into himself as The Time of the Mop. Firstly because his head of black hair looked very similar to a mop, and secondly because during his first growth spurt their house elf was required to use a mop more times than she'd ever done in her life.

The poor clumsy lad, they would say.

The poor clumsy dollop head, the house elf would mutter as she cleaned up yet another mess.

Lucky for us and him, he grew into himself before the students at Hogwarts caught on to his unlucky lifestyle. It was, in fact, the summer of his eleventh year that this growing into himself occurred. Suddenly his limbs didn't have minds of their own and his straight nose wasn't too big for his face.

In the five years that followed James' confidence and abilities as Chaser on the Quidditch team gained him a place of glory in his eyes and the eyes of his companions. He also gained an enviable group of friends and inevitably strong feelings for a certain young lady that were not returned.

Sirius Black, heir to the great and noble house of Black, had been deemed a blood traitor by his family and lived everyday of his life knowing that he'd been nothing more than a disappointment to his family. And sometimes he didn't care, but other times he found it a difficult lifestyle to bear. Upon the summer of his before his sixth year his rather ferocious Mother physically removed him and whatever items within his possession that she could from her property. Leaving him with naught more than his motorbike and wand. Luckily, in his traitorous ways, he'd gained a wonderful friend in the form of James and was allowed entrance into the home of the Potter's as an unruly son alongside James.

His fellows students wouldn't know that from looking at him.

Even now you can find him sitting in the Great Hall with James and their friends Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, talking animatedly about the year ahead of them and the pranks that will ensue, none but his present company and his family 3 tables down would be able to tell you of the injustices(Or justices, if you ask the Blacks) that he'd experienced.


	2. Chapter 2

"James and I have been planning it all summer!" Sirius exclaimed towards Remus, a blonde waning lad with a prefect badge across the table. Remus simply shook his head and took a bite of his peas.

"I have to take my position a prefect seriously," Remus responded quietly after a beat. A strange addition to their group Remus made, his rule abiding nature often causing him to attempt to convince the other three that a prank might not be the best idea. He'd yet to succeed in any of those said attempts.

"And you can," James offered, cutting off whatever snarky reply Sirius would have made. "We won't hurt anyone, you don't even have to be there when it happens."

"Lily will have my arse if I allow you to prank so early on in the year," Remus defended himself, his eyes glancing down the table to the red head his words referred to.

"Lily Evans is no force to be reckoned with," James scoffed, though she was.

"We'll be perfect until the Slytherin game," Sirius lied, his lower lip jutting out in his award wining pout.

Okay, it had yet to win an award, but it had won him the hearts of many girls on the receiving end of it AND gotten him out of detention once or twice.

"Please Remus," Peter chimed in, the only one who wasn't too proud to say please to a fellow Marauder.

"Fine," Remus said sharply. It was his style to give in to their pestering.

"I'll go to the ruddy library tomorrow and get the ruddy book," and with that Sirius pumped his fist into the air, James smiled his signature crooked smile, and Peter clasped him on the shoulder. They hadn't need Remus' approval of course, but he was always a detrimental part of their plans. Marauders pranked together or not at all, it was a rule.

They continued their meal in their own individual manner. James with his elbows on the table taking sure precise bites of his different foods at random, Sirius abandoning table manners to fit as much food into his stomach as meal time allowed. Remus taking small calculated bites, finishing one food group at at time, his thoughts far away from the food before him. And Peter, eyeing James and attempting to mimic his eating patterns, even if that meant eating cooked carrots, which he hated.

Each were so busy eating that they failed to notice the previously mentioned red head rise from her spot down the table and smile a farewell to her friends. Her steps were determined as she walked the table's length. _This year_, she told her self, _this year I will not let James Potter poke fun at me. In fact_, she _thought with pride, I won't even acknowledge his existan-_

"I knew you couldn't resist me," James smiled over at her, his words interrupting her thoughts.

"I'm not here for you," maybe if he'd allowed her to finish her thoughts she would have been able to stand by them.

"Looks like you owe me 5 sickles," James held his hand out for Sirius to place the silver coins in his hand. "Not even a day." Sirius grumbled, and reached into his pocket.

Or maybe not.

"Remus," she began, looking down at her fellow prefect who'd already began to rise. "We've got to walk the first years up to the Common Room."

"You could have at least waited until tomorrow," Sirius groaned across the table as James dropped his new coins into his pocket.

"You shouldn't have made a bet," she sniffed, her arms crossing.

"See I told you-"

"Not that I was even here to see _him_," Lily added sharply, her voice rising slightly to overbear James' own, her green eyes glaring down, silencing him briefly. Not because he feared her wrath, but because she stunned him. During his life James only heard the word no from a handful of people, Lily being the one to use it in the most abundance. Until someone else came along, but that's a story for a different time.

"First years!" Lily called out cheerily after Remus stood at her side and straightened his badge.

"Later, mates," he said, walking alongside Lily towards the head of the table where the first years sat.

"Good luck with that one," Sirius called after him. A backwards glare from Lily silenced Peter's giggles. However funny he found Sirius, he feared him far less than the muggleborn witch that they tormented so.

"She wants me," James commented breezily, his eyes refusing to watch her walk away. He then stood and tossed his napkin onto the plate he'd been eating off of.

The remaining Marauders not on duty stood with him. Sirius padded him on the back and nodded towards Peter. If anyone had been watching(which, someone had), they would had only seen a friendly, yet silent, farewell. Peter and James knew what Sirius was thinking as if they were telepathically connected.

New year, time for Sirius to observe the female population and how they'd _changed _over the summer.

"Oh Godric, 'ere he comes," Mary Macdonald commented at Sirius' approach. Her dark eyes betrayed her bored tone by skimming his body from head to toe. The past 5 years of experience had granted her the knowledge of Sirius' yearly routine, and every year she grew more verbal about her distaste for his ways.

"Ladies," he greeted them all with a guileful grin as he took Lily's now empty seat.

Severus Snape, a small figure huddled down at the Slytherin table across the hall, watched the girls as they laughed at Sirius apparently witty comments. His upper lip curled upward in disgust, Sirius Black couldn't be witty.

Lowbred Gyrffindor girls obviously didn't have taste, he thought, his contempt for Sirius so strong that Sirius found himself loathing people just for being around him. Sirius and James were the bane of his existence, he didn't understand how anyone could like him.

"Mckinnon does have a nice pair," Evan Rosier commented once he noticed the direction of Severus' glare.

"We could get her alone and imperius her into submission, she is a pureblood after all,"

"No!" Severus exclaimed, a bit too quickly. "She's- I mean, she's a bloodtraitor," he added, hoping that his fellow Slytherin wouldn't look upon his refusal as a weakness.

"Only in her right mind," he commented, lifting his dark eyes to watch her as she stood with her friends to begin their assent to the Gryffindor tower.

"But I forgot that you prefer mudbloods," his words were haughtily thrown over his shoulder as he rose to leave, his eyes not leaving the short haired Gryffindor girl.

A lesser being would have flinched at the ice in Rosier's words, but Severus had grown accustom to the mocking. He'd denied his feelings too many times to count, but his words always failed to reach the ears of his Slytherin friends.

Besides, his feelings didn't matter with James Potter constantly getting in the way.

He rose silently to find his fellow Prefect, the first years were growing impatient.

Disclaimer: I have no claim to these characters or the setting.


End file.
